Johan Cruyff. Ajax’s greatest ever player and arguably the finest European footballer of all time. He had been the star man in Ajax’s 3 back-to-back European Cup wins from 1971 to 1973. Rinus Michels was the coach who gave the world Total Football but there is little doubt as to who the real driving force on the pitch was:

“Cruyff was a big influence, especially as he grew older and talked more and more about tactics with the other players.”
[Bobby Haarms, in David Winner’s Brilliant Orange]

However, after the 3rd European triumph with Ajax, Cruyff was removed as captain in an unfortunate move instigated by new coach George Knobel. The players were asked to draw lots to decide the captain for the season – Piet Keizer was chosen ahead of Cruyff and the die was cast. The deposed skipper moved to Barcelona where he was to become a Catalan legend by helping the club to win La Liga for the first time in 24 years.

Cruyff’s international career was characterised by the glorious failure of the 1974 World Cup campaign where the Dutch threw away an early lead to lose to the hosts, their great rivals West Germany. Cruyff declined to play at the 1978 tournament and when he left Barcelona to head to America and play in the fledgling North American Soccer League his career appeared to be winding down. However, in 1981 Cruyff made his long-awaited return to Ajax – the prodigal son was back.

Cruyff may have been 34 years old by the time of his return to Ajax but it was a successful comeback. He scored on his return in December 1981 and helped the club reclaim the Eredivisie title that season. More was to come as Ajax won the league and cup double in the 1982-83 season – only the second time the club had achieved the feat since the great man had left a decade earlier. Incredibly, Ajax refused to extend Cruyff’s contract and thus, in the eyes of the man himself, were forcing him out of the club once again. Cruyff was piqued and when the chance came to join arch-rivals Feyenoord the stage was set for the old legend to prove his point…

At first, the plan to make his old club pay did not go to plan. The now 36 year old Cruyff’s return to Ajax was a disaster as Feyenoord were crushed 8-2.. a hat-trick from the teenage Marco van Basten with youngsters Jesper Olsen and Ronald Koeman also on the scoresheet seemed to send the message loud and clear: Cruyff’s time had passed. The old maestro, however, was to have the last laugh.

Despite that heavy defeat, Feyenoord edged ahead of Ajax and by the time of the return leg it was clear that the result could be decisive in the title race. By this stage, a young star had emerged at Feyenoord to rival Marco van Basten – the dreadlocked figure of Ruud Gullit. The young Gullit was to go on to score 25 goals that season, including 9 in Feyenoord’s successful run to win the KNVB Cup. Indeed, it was Gullit’s remarkable free-kick that opened the scoring in that crucial game between Feyenoord and Ajax – and he was to assist for the goal that made it 2-0… a goal that was to prove a cathartic moment for Holland’s most famous player…

Feyenoord had won a corner on the right-flank.. the kick was taken short for Gullit to whip in. There unmarked was Johan Cruyff to head towards goal, only for the ball to be parried… again Cruyff was first to react and the ball was belted home left-footed… seemingly laced with resentment.

De Klassikier was won 4-1 (you may spot Jan Molby bagging Ajax’s goal), Feyenoord went on to complete the double – the second in a row for Cruyff of course – and the legend was able to retire on a high that summer at the age of 37. He was to rejoin Ajax once again the following year, this time as coach. However, there can be no doubt he had proven his point that February day in 1984, with one swish of his left foot.

I am fortunate to have the programme from the 1971 European Cup Final between Ajax and Panathinaikos at Wembley. My dad went to the game. Whenever I have asked him about it he has recalled the brilliance of Cruyff, and of Neeskens. It is when the name of Piet Keizer comes up, however, that his eyes light up.

Piet Keizer was born in Amsterdam in 1943 and was playing for his home-town club, Ajax, as a teenager. A one club man he would spend 15 years patrolling the left-side for them, playing in all 3 of their back-to-back European Cup triumphs. However, he is in some ways a man betrayed by history. Denied significant involvement in Holland’s run to the final of the 1974 World Cup Final following a fall-out with his former Ajax coach Rinus Michels and long retired by the time of their repeat trip to the final in 1978, it has become all too easy to airbrush Keizer from the potted history of Dutch football in the 1970s. Thanks to the efforts of Cruyff, Neeskens, Rep, Rensenbrink and Haan in those tournaments that so lit up households the world over, live and in colour, it is they whose names resonate with fans today. Indeed, Piet Keizer is perhaps destined to be remembered and defined in relation to the great Johan Cruyff, despite being the pre-eminent force in that glorious Ajax side. Piet Keizer was, if you like, Cruyff before Cruyff…

Velibor Vasovic, the Ajax defender who captained the side to their Wembley triumph, recalled watching his first Ajax game from the stands before signing for the club. He was instantly transfixed by Cruyff but there was no doubt as to the standing of Keizer back in 1966: ‘I was very surprised. Johan Cruyff played on the left wing but this Yugoslav woman told me I didn’t need to watch this young boy because left wing was the position of the club’s best player, Piet Keizer. After the game I said to her: “You can tell the president that if they have anyone better than this player, they don’t need me”.’

Colleagues who remember Keizer at the peak of his powers in the 1960s are effusive in their praise of the remarkable qualities of their team-mate. Sjaak Swart, who played for Ajax from 1956 to 1973, remembers: ‘Keizer was a fantastic player. When he stood still with the ball, he could play a pass that would take out 3 men and leave you free on goal.’

As the young Cruyff emerged as a player, however, debate among fans, journalists and players alike turned to the two geniuses of the Ajax side. The star players in a team playing Total Football. The best of the best:

“One key debate at the time was whether Piet Keizer or Johan Cruyff was the greater artist. Cruyff was electrifying and the most dramatic presence on the field; Keizer better fitted the bill as the moody, elusive and almost dilettante creative genius on the field. The oddly upright, long-striding Keizer had a precise, accurate, near-visionary style. He had a unique scissoring run, could dribble past several defenders at once and delighted in deceptive curling crosses and passes.” [David Winner, Brilliant Orange]

Keizer may have been moody and elusive on the field but it was his more inclusive attitude off the field that was to lead to the break up of the great Ajax side. When George Knobel took over the reigns at Ajax in 1973 he held a pre-season meeting, casually announcing that there would be a secret ballot to decide the new captain. Although it was presented as a tradition, nobody in the dressing room had heard of such a thing before. Cruyff was the captain and was stunned by events. When the ballot revealed Keizer had received significantly more votes than the incumbent Cruyff, the die had been cast and the chain of events that saw the world’s greatest player leaving the world’s greatest side for Barcelona was set in motion. As a man-management exercise it was a disaster but Barry Hulshoff (Ajax, 1966-1977) remains in no doubt that Keizer was the better leader: ‘Keizer was more about the team. Johan put himself in a more exceptional position; so when things had to be done for the team, Piet Keizer was better.’

Although the captaincy issue was undeniably the catalyst for the dismantling of the great Ajax team, in truth, there was bound to be a natural decline as so many remarkable players reached the end of the road with the side. Just over a year later, in October 1974, Piet Keizer walked out on Ajax following a row over tactics with the latest coach, Hans Kraay. In typically enigmatic style, Keizer was also to walk away from football.. for good. As David Winner memorably relates: ‘For three decades Keizer refused even to kick a ball again, on one occasion famously stepping away from the ball as it rolled towards him on the touchline while he stood watching his son play in a boys’ game.’

And so a brilliant career was brought to an end. A career that saw Piet Keizer achieve everything there was to achieve in the club game, doing it with style and panache as part of arguably the finest team to ever play the game. Perhaps the final, albeit cryptic, word is best left to the noted Dutch writer, Nico Scheepmaker: